Preservice Education on HIV and TB

Nurses and midwives are the frontline workers in most countries, and make up the largest proportion of health care workers. MCHIP is supporting Ghana and Lesotho in their nursing and midwifery pre-service programs in order to produce competent and confident graduates ready to address the needs of their communities, including HIV and TB. In Lesotho, MCHIP is focused on key activities to strengthen the clinical education of nursing and midwifery students, enabling them to gain the experience they need in school to be ready for deployment at graduation. In Ghana, MCHIP is focused on the development of preceptors and skills laboratories to improve the clinical education of midwives.
ResultsGhana: MCHIP has been developing the capacity of nursing and midwifery educators according to gaps identified in the situational assessment. The MCHIP facilitated training, focused on educators, was the first time most of the participants had ever conducted a rapid HIV test. MCHIP in Ghana has also focused on strengthening educator and clinician communication to improve student clinical experiences. In addition, the Program has developed two key manuals that will be utilized in midwifery pre-service education: Reference Manual for Simulation Laboratories in Midwifery Education Programmes,and Reference Manual for Preceptorship in Midwifery Education.

Other results include:

162 tutors from 38 (100%) Community Health Nursing, Public Health Nursing, Midwifery and Medical Assistant Schools received technical updates in HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and family planning, and all participants achieved competency (such as administration of a rapid diagnostic test for HIV) with an average knowledge increase of 19%.

In addition, 98 tutors received Effective Teaching Skills training to enable them to implement their new skills and knowledge in the classroom more effectively.

These technical updates are currently being integrated into the new curriculum for Community Health Nursing, Public Health Nursing and Midwifery to ensure sustained changes.

Lesotho: MCHIP is working with four nursing and midwifery schools to strengthen the clinical experience of students. To date, MCHIP has developed 145 preceptors who provide guidance and mentorship to students during their clinical rotation. The Program has also rolled out the primary care clinical placement program. The primary care clinical placements expose more than 150 students to varied clinical activities in health centers, thereby strengthening students’ primary health care clinical education experience with a focus on HIV and nurse-initiated antiretrovirals. Finally, MCHIP has worked closely with the schools’ faculties to develop their teaching, coaching and technology skills to prepare them to teach future nurse and midwifery students.